The latest privacy preoccupation to grip Facebook users appears to have been provoked by changes to the social media website’s data use policy made last week.

Many users have been posting notices to their Facebook walls purporting to protect their copyright, stating in part, “In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos etc.”

However, what Facebook does with information or materials shared on its site is governed by its own data use policy, which users agree to when they sign up for the site. Simply posting a notice to your wall cannot alter those terms.

“We found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality,” Eilliot Schrage, vice-president of communications, public policy and marketing, said in a blog post on the Facebook Site Governance page.

“Therefore, we’re proposing to end the voting component of the process in favor of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement,” he wrote, adding that Facebook would still post significant changes and provide a seven-day period for review and comment.

An example of the text of the notice circulating on Facebook today is as follows:

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).

For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!

(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.)

By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook’s direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates.”

Facebook has grappled with issues related to privacy in the past and regulators in several countries — including Canada’s privacy commissioner — have expressed concerns over its complicated privacy policies.

Similar notices to the one circulating this week, purporting to protect privacy and copyright, were widely posted on Facebook after the company went public.

More recently, the company faced a panic in September when many users reported what they believed to be private messages were now showing up on their public profiles.

Facebook insisted that no private messages were made public but many users remained convinced that private correspondence had been posted for all to see.

Update 12:15 p.m. Monday – comment from Facebook spokesperson:

A Facebook spokesperson provided the following comment in response to the privacy posts:

“As outlined in our terms, the people who use Facebook own all of the content and information they post on Facebook, and they can control how it is shared through their privacy and application settings.

“Over the last few years, we have noticed some statements that suggest otherwise and we wanted to take a moment to remind you of the facts – when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them. Under our terms [https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms], you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings. For example, if you upload a photo and share it with your friends, we’ll make that photo available and distribute it to your friends. And, when you delete a photo, we delete it too.